Twits

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Venus wins, Serena loses and Kim is out.

It says something about this extraordinary player that most people expected Serena Williams to progress against the world No 3 Vera Zvonareva in only her second match back after a year's absence from the game – and she wasn't far away from making it. As it is, the Aegon International will have to make do with just one comeback queen from that family in the quarter-finals after Venus Williams powered her way past former world No 1 Ana Ivanovic.


Serena actually served for the match at 5-4 in the second set and but for a double fault on break point might have made it. She still showed plenty of her famous tenacity and courage in coming back from 5-2 down to pull level in the third set, but just couldn't quite keep up the revival. Consequently, it was something of an anticlimactic victory for the No 1 seed, who won 3-6, 7-6, 7-5 in just over three hours, which was at least some compensation for the American; what Serena needed most of all was time on court and she's had five hours this week.

As a result, she will go into Wimbledon next week in better shape than she has any right to expect and fully justifying her bumped-up seeding.

Venus Williams continued her winning return with a straight-sets demolition of former world number one Ana Ivanovic at Eastbourne.

The five-time Wimbledon winner, who is joining her sister Serena in a return from long-term absence this week, moved closer to top form with a 6-3 6-2 victory over the Serb.

The second round victory took just over an hour and she will now prepare for a quarter-final on the English south coast on Thursday.

"I feel I'm playing very tough, playing well on big points," said Venus, who last competed at the tournament 13 years ago. "I just need to continue.

"These matches have been huge and crucial for me to just get back literally into the swing of things. I'm focusing on all the positives, and I think there's a lot of them.

Meanwhile the last of the big 3, Kim Clijsters, has been forced to withdraw due to an ankle injury she re-sustained this week. The world No. 2 Belgian was advised by doctors to withdraw from the grand slam, which starts on Monday, after carrying out tests yesterday.

Her demise saw Sam Stosur rise to 10th seeding, with fellow Australian Jarmila Gajdosova moving up one place to 27th seed.

Defending champion Serena Williams, who was originally promoted from 26th in the rankings to eighth seed, will now be No. 7.

Bulgarian Tsevtana Pironkova moved into the seedings at No. 32.

Clijsters, who injured her right foot at the Unicef Open in the Netherlands on Tuesday, used Twitter to reveal she would not be playing next week.

"Hey guys, bad news... No Wimbledon for me this year," she said.

Oh yeah and I heard Sabine got her wild card :)

8 comments:

Nina Camara said...

Oh no, poor Kim. She shouldnt play the French. That is where it all started.

Carlos said...

I'll be rooting for "My" Ostrich. Mr. Caps I'm sure you will be rooting for your Duchess.


Captain, I guess you will be rooting for Sponge Bart Square Pants while the beautiful Clefairy will be rooting for Angry Bird.


And we all are going to be rooting for Dokic.

Anonymous said...

The great thing about having a whole stable of women would be.. When one goes gimpy there is another one waiting in the wings!

Dokic has her left thigh wrapped in this match with Larsson. (Dokic is up 6-5 in the first set.)

Princess & Julia will be playing doubles at Wimbledon.

http://www.mariakirilenko.com/?p=4325

Emily or as Carlos likes to call me "Captain" said...

Marine, it is very upsetting for Kim, her futre now looks very dark :( It wasn't very wise to play RG under the injury, especially with no points to defend. She better get back on track for the USO or the ranking will slip!

Carlos, I love the matches the tear myself and Clefairy apart! Often followed by a bitter day or two of minimal comunication :P The samething occurs with our favourite footy teams (AFL)

Yes, really hoping Dokic can win this match, she has a good chance to make the final! Good confidence boost the week before Wimbledon...still don't know what she played Copenhagen on hard court and not Birmingham!

Is Vika not playing doubles or is my fave doubes team over already? :'(

Anonymous said...

Emily -- Kirlenko's site says:

Doubles with Julia Goerges (GER) and mixed doubles with Igor Andreev (RUS)
Maria and Victoria Azarenka planed to skip Miami and Wimbledon. They will play together in doubles after this tournament.

Emily or as Carlos likes to call me "Captain" said...

Thanks for that Caps :) Glad they will resume playing together after Wimby. I assume Azarenka didn't want to play Wimby doubes because she probably thinks its her best chance to win a slam.

Anonymous said...

Looks like Venus is down 5-2 in the first set against Dani. Now, we can never count out a Williams sister. But, Dani has been playing better recently.

Anonymous said...

Vinci over Wiki 6-4, 6-4.

Dokic over Larsson 7-6, 6-4.

Aggie up 3-0 against Ostrich in the first. (Sure wish I could watch this one!)

Dani/Venus with one set each, Dani up 2-1 in the third.

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